"Parents located in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced educator to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the press, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who have these doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can in some way impart the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
